Hubert Harrison | |
|---|---|
 Harrison in 1913 | |
| Born | Hubert Henry Harrison April 27, 1883 |
| Died | December 17, 1927 (aged 44) New York City, US |
| Spouse | Irene Louise Horton (m. 1909-1927; his death) |
| Children | 5 |
Hubert Henry Harrison (April 27, 1883 – December 17, 1927) was a West Indian-American writer, orator, educator, critic, race and class conscious political activist, and radical internationalist based in Harlem, New York. He was described by activist A. Philip Randolph as "the father of Harlem radicalism" and by the historian Joel Augustus Rogers as "the foremost Afro-American intellect of his time." John G. Jackson of American Atheists described him as "The Black Socrates".[1][2]
An immigrant from St. Croix at the age of 17, Harrison played significant roles in the largest radical class and race movements in the United States. In 1912–14, he was the leading Black organizer in the Socialist Party of America. In 1917 he founded the Liberty League and The Voice, the first organization and the first newspaper of the race-conscious "New Negro" movement. From his Liberty League and Voice came the core leadership of individuals and race-conscious program of the Garvey movement.[3]
Harrison was a seminal and influential thinker who encouraged the development of class consciousness among workers, black pride, agnostic atheism, secular humanism, social progressivism, and freethought. He was also a self-described "radical internationalist" and contributed significantly to the Caribbean radical tradition. Harrison profoundly influenced a generation of "New Negro" militants, including A. Philip Randolph, Chandler Owen, Marcus Garvey, Richard Benjamin Moore, W. A. Domingo, Williana Burroughs, and Cyril Briggs.
- ^ Jervis Anderson, A. Philip Randolph: A Biographical Portrait (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1973), 79, and Joel. A. Rogers, "Hubert Harrison: Intellectual Giant and Free-Lance Educator (1883–1927)", in World's Great Men of Color, ed. John Henrik Clarke, 2 vols (1947; New York: reprint, Collier Books, 1972), 2:432–42, esp. 432–33.
- ^ John G., Jackson. Hubert Henry Harrison: The Black Socrates. www.atheists.org.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ A Hubert Harrison Reader, ed. with an introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2001), 1-2. This work (pp. 1–30) is used for general background on Harrison's life.